Improvement in folding chairs



JLE WAKEFIELD. FQ LDI NG -CHAIR.

N0.169.,74:8. Patented Nov. 9,1875,

W44, ofwmzw N PETERS, FHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. D cv connected at their back UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. WAKEFIELD, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD W. VAILL, UF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT in FOLDING CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 169,748, dated November 9, 1875 application filed April 6, 1875.

GAsE No. 2.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN E. WAKEFIELD,

of Worcester, in the .State of Massachusetts,

have invented an Improvement in Folding Chairs, of which the following is a specification:

This improvement is made "for of facilitating the folding of the small compass for transportation.

Chairs have been made with a back-frame, to which the seat has been connect-ed, and with front legs hinged or pi voted to such backframe. In my present invention I make use of the back-frame and pivoted front legs that are extended up to form arm-pieces, and I connect the arm-pieces and back by links that swing as the chair is folded.

In the drawing, Figure-1 is a side view of the chair as unfolded for use. Fig. 2 is a similar view with the parts folded; and Fig. 3 is a modification in the construction of the linkjoint for the arms.

The back-frame is made of the legs a a, ex tending up to form the side pieces of the back, and connected by the cross-pieces or stretchers b and c, and these may be ornamental and curved in the portion of the frame forming the back. The seat arms or braces 01 d are ends to the legs a, either by screws or pivots, or by the stretcher c, as in Fig. 1, so that said braces will fold toward the back by turning upon .such point of attachment. The front legs f are connected to the seat-braces by pivots, so as to turn at such point of attachment as the chair is folded, and the lower portions of the legs fare preferably strengthened by the connectingstretcher g. The upper portions of the legs f Such arm-pieces are not the purpose chair into a form the arm-pieces.

link It passes,

pivoted to the back-frame, for that would prevent the chair folding; but the link his applied to each arm, and this link is pivoted at one end to the side piece aof the back, and at the other end to the arm f. This link It may be of wood, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the same being a half of the arm, so that the parts rest upon each other when the chair is in use; or else a metal plate may form such link, as in Figs. 4 and 5, with a flanged rest for the upper end of the arm; or the arm f may be slotted at the under side, into which the said as shown in Fig. 3, when the chair is in use. r y

The seat may be a rigid frame, hinged-at the back to the back legs a, and resting at the front upon the outer ends of the seat-braces 01,- but generally the seat will be flexible, and stretched between the cross-rail l at the back and the rail m at the ends of the seat-arms d.

1 claim as my invention- 1. The folding chair composed of the backframe a b, swinging seat-braces d, front legs and links h, pivoted to the back end to the upper portions of the front legs f that extend up and form the arms, as and for the purposes specified. t

2. In combination with a folding' chair, the links it, pivoted to the back and to the armpieces, and constructed and arranged substantially as set forth, so that the links swing upon both of the pivots, and fold between the back and arm pieces, as specified.

Signed by me this 24th day of March, 1875.

JOHN E. WAKEFIELD. Witnesses H. L. PARKER, A. PRENTISS. 

